Vijayapura: Names of four candidates of the District have been announced in the first list of 124 candidates announced by the Party High Command on Saturday March 25.
The District has a total of eight Assembly constituencies, of which an announcement has been made for four constituencies. The Party will have to announce tickets for the remaining four constituencies.
As expected the party has given tickets to three sitting MLAs and one former MLA. They include M. B. Patil from Babaleshwar, Shivanand Patil from Basavanabagewadi and Yeshwantraigouda Patil from Indi (all are sitting MLAs) while the party has given ticket to Former MLA, C. S. Nadagouda from Muddebihal.
The four constituencies where the candidates are yet to be announced are; Vijayapura City, Nagathan Reserved Constituency, Devarahipparagi and Sindagi.
Even the party insiders said that they are not surprised by the decision as it was certain that the party will field the sitting candidate again.
With regard to Muddebihal, one of the reasons for fielding C. S. Nadagouda is that the party has no other strong aspirant in the Constituency.
Since the competition is tough for the ticket in the remaining four Assembly segments, the party is reportedly taking time to finalise the candidate.
For Vijayapura City alone, nearly two dozen aspirants have sought the ticket. The Congress has decided to offer ticket to Muslims from Vijayapura because of the large concentration of Muslim population, therefore except one, all the other aspirants who have sought ticket are Muslim. Samyukta Patil, the daughter of MLA Shivanand Patil is the only non-Muslim aspirant who has sought a ticket from Vijayapura.
Similarly, the party is facing a tough time in selecting candidates for Nagathan, Devarahipparagi and Sindagi as multiple aspirants are lobbying for the ticket here.
While the Congress has gained upper hand in announcing the first list of candidates, the ruling BJP is yet to finalise the candidates. Though the JD (S) has announced its candidates weeks in advance, yet because of the party’s weaker presence in the District, people seem to be not taking its candidates seriously.
